Wednesday, April 22, 2009

A Letter to the Future

I know my children are only 3.5 and 2 years old, respectively, but we need to get something straight right now, before they even enter school.

If you EVER lay hands on my child in anger, if you EVER paddle her, if you EVER violate her bodily privacy, if you EVER strip search her, you will feel my wrath.

Oh, you think that this 5 foot 4 inch body is incapable of wrath? Guess again.

I do not give a shit about your "zero tolerance" policy. I happen to have a zero tolerance policy against child abuse, which is precisely what this is.

If you honestly believe that she has violated your school policies by bringing pills (ibuprofen!!!!!) into your school, you should call the police and then call my husband and me. You will NOT touch her. Do you hear me? You will NOT make her take off her clothes. You will NOT pull her underwear away from her body and check to be sure she hasn't stashed anything inside of them. You will NOT treat her like she has no rights, because my child, my daughter, has RIGHTS. She has the right to go to school without becoming a piece of property that you can do whatever you want to. I have several suggestions as to where you can shove your "in loco parentis." I do not consent. She does not consent. She may be in your buildings 8 hours a day, 180 days a year, but she is MY child, and more importantly, she is her own person who has the right to be treated with dignity and respect, even before she's 18 - ESPECIALLY before she's 18. And I swear to God I will get the best lawyers on this planet, and we will destroy you (assuming that my husband and I can stop each other from killing you with our bare hands, because I so would want to do just that).

I am shaking with anger over what happened to this child. The girl whose rights were violated was a 13 year old honors student with no history of discipline problems. I hope the Supreme Court throws the book - literally take an actual extremely large and heavy book and throw it - at the parties that are responsible for this. Better yet, they should be made to strip to their skivvies, and the Supremes should take a look at their private parts. Cruel and unusual?? Perhaps, but maybe they should have thought of that before they did it to a kid.

I'm playing devil's advocate here, but if you want the school administrator's to call the police to handle the situation. Then, do you think it is appropriate for those authorities to perform the necessary searches?

I'm going to defer to Jen the cop on whether or not the police would strip search a child for ibuprofen.

I'm not sure about the school board, Anon II... Perhaps, when the kids are older and we're more involved with the schools. I don't really know. I haven't thought of a career in local politics. I thought I closed that door when I inhaled. :)